The Star Citizen Thread v8

[MTBFritz]

What would be rational explanations for CiG to hold back any advantages they made? I realize this is one of the last hopes firm believers have.

Are there benefits to be had from holding back any break-throughs or shiny new stuff? CiG in the last 2 years has shown that it cannot get cheap enough when it comes to marketing its piece of garbage. Ripping off its trusted and most valued backers in the process. Showing verifiable progress and development would reinforce backer trust, draw in new blood and actually help much more with marketing then anything the very fanatical mouthbreathers could do on their own. It would shut up dissent and critiques and disarm many complaints.

There really is no good reason to hold back on something like this apart from "you are not worthy to experience Chris's genius".

Sitting on something so big in order to prevent competition from getting in on it is a laughable thought. First of all a lot of competition has actually passed Star Citizens current stage. While I can see a company trying to "protect" its assets from intellectual theft fact is that the greater public perceives Star Citizen as a scam or at least a dead project IF they heard about it at all (IMO most people have heard about SC but most of these people connect it with the Smart incident and overall scamminess). Yet somehow CiGs behavior is more withdrawn, focusing on the trusted fanatics in its circle. They hardly make public appearances anymore and most articles we can read are either blatant shill pieces or discuss the "problems of Star Citizen".

Is it really a good idea to hold back anything that could help your company to regain trust and confidence?

So....a secret dev build IMO is wishful thinking. CiG blew everything they had on their last trailer, the one which was notoriously unimpressive despite the shine and glamor. If they had anything at all they could use, they would. If they dont show anything new its because they dont have anything at all. Its a bitter pill but really, people need to drop the rose tinted glasses and pull up the big boy pants.

 

[GuruNot]

I think they arent holding anything back for the simple reason they arent that organised. The effort that goes in to the concept art, proof of concept animations of what seems like never ending "coming soon" items (some of which were never asked for backers), has to have an impact on core activites. With a lot of assets/features announced several years ago not remotely complete, I do not see how there can be a bunch of completed assets waiting in the wings.

I reckon what you see is what there is. And what there is is not great.

 

[VidarSnipes]

There is a money raising activity and target planned for every month for this year, that's why the tickets went on sale when they did.

There is nothing planned beyond December, make of that what you will.

[Citation needed]
Edit: Or, if that's out of the question, how far is CIG from their fundraising targets this year, roughly speaking?

 

[TenakaFurey]

[Citation needed]
Edit: Or, if that's out of the question, how far is CIG from their fundraising targets this year, roughly speaking?

I think they're on track, or slightly ahead, over the past 6months, but that's due to the big sales at the end of last year.

If their funding meter is accurate, they are only getting about $2 million each month despite all the extra sales and special events.

To my eyes, that is another sign they are running out of money. Nothing conclusive without hard data of course...really just speculation...but CIG aren't acting like a. company with lots of money.

But who knows...they could be flush with cash.

 

[Cobra1984]

[Citation needed]
Edit: Or, if that's out of the question, how far is CIG from their fundraising targets this year, roughly speaking?

I don't know how close or far off they are as regards fundraising targets but I do know that this started in January and is 'Plan B' because their last ditch 'Plan A' to get the game funded to completion fell through catastrophically. The monthy stuff is 50% of Plan B, the other half of it is underway and I *think* will become very visible, it has to.

Now what I'm hoping is that Derek - and yes I know everyone cringes when he's mentioned but bear with it - is going to pop the lid off this stuff, surely he knows, so the secret squirrel act can stop and an actual conversation can happen around what has happened and been happening.

There is ZERO possibility of a game coming out of this. ZERO. The conversation should be around regulation and transparency, not ship sales and imaginary game mechanics. It's gone way way WAY past all that.

 

[Cobra1984]

But who knows...they could be flush with cash.

LOL

 

[VidarSnipes]

Now what I'm hoping is that Derek - and yes I know everyone cringes when he's mentioned but bear with it - is going to pop the lid off this stuff, surely he knows, so the secret squirrel act can stop and an actual conversation can happen around what has happened and been happening.

The problem with him is that even though I don't doubt his sources, I doubt his ability to release the information before it becomes common knowledge through other channels.

 

[MTBFritz]

The problem with him is that even though I don't doubt his sources, I doubt his ability to release the information before it becomes common knowledge through other channels.

I m with you on this. As much as I would love to learn the truth I doubt very much that DS is able to transport the truth without spinning it heavily due to his bias. Luckily he isnt the only source on this disaster and usually his information are just links to other peoples findings so usually when he writes about something I can cross examine his reports with the originals thus making up my mind.

 

[frostypaw]

Yes, we see little RELEASED content and we can believe they always lie about what they DO show us in videos as not being "real". And then we have the issue of them being damned if they do and damned if they don't.

I used to give the idea of a "secret build" some credence - not so much as a secret build but as Sq42 being separate and as such ahead of what we were seeing in the PU.

All of that went to hell and my hopes of ever seeing the game pretty much went to zero with the CreepyHamillDemo. There was virtually nothing that we hadn't seen in some way already during the shows, and some of it quite recently. That was it. That was all they had.

Coil was also rather disappointing. IIRC the Sq42 story is set basically in it so that took the whole scale from a big campaign to a little fracas. Sad times.

 

[Zetta]

I don't think CIG offering their Citizencon tickets now is indicative of anything tbh, I say this because Jagex have just done the same for their Runescape event.
What it says to me, more than anything, is that they wanted more time to sell tickets due to it being a much larger capacity venue than previous Citizencons, naught wrong with that.

 

[DLewth]

But who knows...they could be flush with whales.

FTFY.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

I used to give the idea of a "secret build" some credence - not so much as a secret build but as Sq42 being separate and as such ahead of what we were seeing in the PU.

No, i do not believe they have a secret universe on a harddrive somewhere but more like a lot of created content they cannot really activate yet. I mean, we know network code and item 2.0 and bind culling is not completely done yet so before that is there a point in filling up a drive with things that would most likely crash the build?

- Assets like buildings, textures, ground material, plants etc
- Designed systems with planets and content but not yet built/initiated yet

I get the impression they have...like a lot of cities to place on a map already done but the map itself is still in production.

It's like everyone is waiting for that one guy to be done with stuff so the rest can get on with their work and get somewhere.

 

[dayrth]

No, i do not believe they have a secret universe on a harddrive somewhere but more like a lot of created content they cannot really activate yet. I mean, we know network code and item 2.0 and bind culling is not completely done yet so before that is there a point in filling up a drive with things that would most likely crash the build?

- Assets like buildings, textures, ground material, plants etc
- Designed systems with planets and content but not yet built/initiated yet

I get the impression they have...like a lot of cities to place on a map already done but the map itself is still in production.

It's like everyone is waiting for that one guy to be done with stuff so the rest can get on with their work and get somewhere.

That sounds a lot like believing in a "It's all there, just needs a flick of a switch", secret build.

Personally I think what we can see is all they have. Even if they had something they could not put in the game yet we would be seeing "all in engine (TM)" trailers of it.

 

[Jacques d'Orleans]

I was really tempted to back the game back then, but then I remembered all the crap that happened during the Freelancer development and as a result I didn't back SC, instead of wasting my money on CR and his SC "dream", I went and backed the Long Dark Developers aka Hinterland Games.
Right now it really looks like the Freelancer history is repeating itself except the part where Microsoft stepped in and forced Digital Anvil to release the game after firing CR.
I have absolutely lost any interest in anything SC related, to be honest, I sit on the sideline silently watching the show with a huge bowl of popcorn and a six pack waiting for the things to come.

 

[Skizomeuh]

It's like everyone is waiting for that one guy to be done with stuff so the rest can get on with their work and get somewhere.

That sounds a lot like believing in a "It's all there, just needs a flick of a switch", secret build.

Yep, it's all there like your house is all there in an Ikea self service warehouse area. Except in CIG's Ikea nobody knows where the nuts and bolts are, and what they should look like.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

That sounds a lot like believing in a "It's all there, just needs a flick of a switch", secret build.

Personally I think what we can see is all they have. Even if they had something they could not put in the game yet we would be seeing "all in engine (TM)" trailers of it.

That's just it, i do not believe "all" is there but i think SOME of it are there but require testing after a guy manages to finally flick "a" switch and then they can move on to the next switch.

Yep, it's all there like your house is all there in an Ikea self service warehouse area. Except in CIG's Ikea nobody knows where the nuts and bolts are, and what they should look like.

I feel it's more like they have finished the walls and are waiting for the delivery truck to the location for the house and then they will have to wait for the guy to deliver the nuts and bolts later on when they have confirmed that the location they moved the walls to is indeed the location for the house.

 

[Cmdr Eagleboy]

It's like everyone is waiting for that one guy to be done with stuff so the rest can get on with their work and get somewhere.

That's urban myth that should die here, right now.

In big software development, it is *never* one guy. Never.

 

[TenakaFurey]

No, i do not believe they have a secret universe on a harddrive somewhere but more like a lot of created content they cannot really activate yet. I mean, we know network code and item 2.0 and bind culling is not completely done yet so before that is there a point in filling up a drive with things that would most likely crash the build?

- Assets like buildings, textures, ground material, plants etc
- Designed systems with planets and content but not yet built/initiated yet

You mean...stuff they shouldn't even be touching right now, stuff that shouldn't exist, because not only would such work have detracted from and delayed the work that DOES need to be done but because they'd have to go over it again and redo it all to make sure it fits?

get the impression they have...like a lot of cities to place on a map already done but the map itself is still in production.

It's like everyone is waiting for that one guy to be done with stuff so the rest can get on with their work and get somewhere.

It doesn't matter.

Even if they do have full libraries of such assets, each and every single item will need to be rechecked and reworked inividually to make sure it fits within the framework that CIG ARE STILL CREATING.

It wouldn't surprise me if they do have such assets. But it really doesn't matter if they do or not.

Such libraries...at this time...would be worthless. Think how many ships have had to be reworked. Think how many are on their second or third rework.

What you are suggesting is that CIGs art team has a couple of years work ahead to them reworking assets they should never gave created at this stage of development anyway.

Meanwhile, they have systems they have developed and created....but dropped the one system they promised to flesh out?

They have content the game needs...but still talk about doing the design work such content requires?

This is....IMO...grasping for straws. It is the "secret dev build"...the one they bring out to show journalists but refuse to release, instead pushing a bug ridden glitchy PPT style slideshow as their latest build to the public.

We know CIG have assets that aren't in game. Sandy Sandworm for one. Not to mention all those city assets.

Of course, we aren't even sure those demos were even created with the game engine....actually, pretty sure they weren't....so those assets existing don't really mean much.

Except that CIG is squandering its resources creating needless marketing drek to raise money it shouldn't need to create a game that should have been finished years ago.

So...no. We can state CIGs team have a dev build a couple of steps ahead of that released, and some marketing builds in what appears to be a different engine about how they would like things to turn out. They likely have some basic sketches around and a writeup or gamebible (hopefully) even if it isn't as fully fleshed out as it needs to be.

But actual code? I suspect...strongly...that what we see now is largely what exists. CIG couldn't resist marketing and promoting actual in game assets or their prototypes if they existed.

 

[Snarfbuckle]

You mean...stuff they shouldn't even be touching right now, stuff that shouldn't exist, because not only would such work have detracted from and delayed the work that DOES need to be done but because they'd have to go over it again and redo it all to make sure it fits?

Depends if you mean stuff for SC or SQ42.

While they share tech between SQ42 and SC it think any asset work towards SC as a whole should be put on hold and a 100% focus should be on SQ42.

So if they are creating procedural planet tech for SQ42 and really NEED that for the campaign then sure, create ahead. But if all they need it for is a single planetary mission they might as well just create a flat MAP and have a orbit to planet cutscene.

That's urban myth that should die here, right now.

In big software development, it is *never* one guy. Never.

I do not literally mean one guy. It can be the work of several departments in a company but it still means other parts of the company require some OTHER parts of a company to get something done.

 

[metatheurgist]

Personally I think what we can see is all they have. Even if they had something they could not put in the game yet we would be seeing "all in engine (TM)" trailers of it.

Not to mention all the times they've showed things that aren't there and never will be. Sandworms, weather, Nyx, all those videos of "in game" content coming soon^TM dropped by all those SC supporters in the old threads. If they had anything at all they'd be waving it around like a windmill.